September 9, 1998 Contact: Lew Harris (615) 322-2706 Lewis.G.Harris@Vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt Divinity School to host national conference to encourage minority doctoral candidates

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Vanderbilt Divinity School will host a national recruitment conference Sept. 25-27 to encourage racial and ethnic minority students to become doctoral candidates in religious or biblical studies.

"This is a serious attempt and concerted effort to make sure that in the future more Bible and religion professors reflect the ethnicity of the increasingly diverse students who will be sitting in front of them in the next century," said Fernando F. Segovia, the convener of the conference. "The more diversity there is in the faculty ranks, the better it will be for everybody."

Segovia said that 20 racial and ethnic minority students at the master's level from throughout the country have been selected for the conference. These students, who will receive full financial support to attend the event, represent the African American, Asian American, Hispanic American and Native American populations.

"These students have the intellectual talents and interests in the scholarly study of religion or the Bible as well as the maturity and tenacity needed," said Segovia, professor of New Testament and early Christianity. The students will be matched at the conference with 10 mentors from academia to introduce them to the nature and dynamics of both doctoral studies and the academic profession. The mentors will also offer concrete suggestions regarding the next steps the students should follow in pursuing an academic career.

"Racial and ethnic minority students need ongoing intervention in personal decisions regarding their careers," Segovia said. "They are often isolated from

those who share their heritages and experiences. Very few role models exist to offer blunt but helpful advice that is critical in preparing for advanced studies and an academic career."

The genesis of the conference began in the late 1980's when the Society of Biblical Literature began to address the problem of the paucity of racial and ethnic minority representation within its own ranks. Of the thousands of biblical scholars with a Ph.D., estimates of African American biblical scholars range from 35 to 50. Among Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans, the number is no more than 20, Segovia said.

Among the many recommendations of a committee, which included Segovia, was that a series of recruitment conferences be designed to attract racial and ethnic minorities to the profession.

The first recruitment conference was held at Union Theological Seminary in New York in the fall of 1996. Both Segovia and Renita Weems, an associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt, served as mentors at the conference. Weems also delivered the keynote address. That conference focused on undergraduate students. About half of those who attended are now in seminaries or divinity schools studying religion.

"That was a good success rate, particularly since the students were undergraduates," Segovia said. "We are confident that this conference will be even more successful since these students are already enrolled in master's degree programs."

The Nashville conference reflects a positive change because a number of other organizations have joined the Society of Biblical Literature in sponsoring the event. Those organizations are the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Fund for Theological Education and the Wabash Center for the Teaching of Religion.

"The Vanderbilt Divinity School is extremely pleased to be the host for this very important conference," said Divinity School Dean Joseph C. Hough. "The concerted effort to recruit outstanding minority students for graduate study is crucial to theological schools' efforts to bring top minority faculty to their institutions."

-VU-

Vanderbilt University is a private research university of approximately 5,900 undergraduates and 4,300 graduate and professional students. Founded in 1873, the University comprises 10 schools, a public policy institute, a distinguished medical center and The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. Vanderbilt offers undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, education and human development, engineering and music, and a full range of graduate and professional degrees.

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